Helicopter drops wheel that crashes through Illinois family’s ceiling

LYNWOOD, Ill. (WLS/CNN) - An Illinois family was stunned when a wheel from a machine that moves helicopters came crashing through their roof, leaving a hole big enough for rain to get through.

A wheel from a machine that moves helicopters from one hangar to another somehow stayed attached to the chopper until it fell off directly above Linda Taylor-Whitt’s house. (Source: Linda Taylor-Whitt/WLS/CNN)

Linda Taylor-Whitt and her family had just returned home from dinner Saturday night in Lynwood, Ill., when they realized something truly bizarre had happened.

A wheel had crashed through the roof and the ceiling, leaving a gaping hole in the bathroom.

“I just couldn’t believe it... I could not believe that a tire, and I’m like, ‘Is this an airplane?’" Taylor-Whitt said.

In disbelief and frightened, Taylor-Whitt called the police. The baffled officers called the fire chief, but no one knew what they were looking at.

“They couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and he was like, ‘I’ve never in my life seen this. I’ve been a fireman 30 or 40 some years,’" Taylor-Whitt said.

Officials later pieced together the mystery. It turned out a wheel from a machine that moves helicopters from one hangar to another somehow stayed attached to the chopper until it fell off directly above Taylor-Whitt’s house.

The house is just west of Lansing Municipal Airport. Taylor-Whitt got a call Monday from the owners of SummerSkyz, Inc., a flight school that has a helicopter there.

"They were taking responsibility for it, and whatever need to be done, they would take care of it,” Taylor-Whitt said.

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